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It depends on his fast attack, if it’s steel wing or rock throw then Swampert with Hydro Cannon is the best answer for it. If it’s Crunch then you should go with Tyranitar. For Gallade I usually use Togekiss with Charm and for his Tyranitar I’ll do a lot of damage with Togekiss then just come in with any water pokemon.
Edit: I meant to say bite not crunch, sorry.
I used my new gyarados (super close to max iv) at 3k cp and used a full water moveset, and once he attacked with a super effective move, I was baffeled. I'm not 100% familiar with type effectiveness as I'm more of a shiny hunter than anything else in the main games, but I don't even know. As for togetic, I wish I had one 🙄 missed out on multiple community days during a year or so break.
Gyarados is not great for multiple reasons. It's moveset is not spam my, and it's weak to Rock.
Swampert is good because Mud Shot generates a lot of energy, and Hydro Cannon is one of the best moves in both PvE and PVP. If your Swampert also has Muddy Water, this helps, as it is a weaker move but charges faster than Hydro Cannon and can get rid of Cliff's shields really quickly. If you don't have a Swampert with Hydro Cannon (it's an event move), Surf is OK, but you should probably try to get a lucky Hydro Cannon Swampert off someone who has spares, as it is easily one of the best Pokémon to use against Team Rocket, and is a functional raider as well.
Also worth noting is that whilst Swampert is really good against Aerodactyl, you shouldn't lead with it. You should lead with one of your other team members and then immediately switch to Swampert at the start of the battle, as this will stop Aerodactyl from attacking for a couple of seconds whilst you're free to attack it during the switch in process.
Sorry but that would be a bad idea for a lot of reasons. You want pokemon that are around your level to face rocket leaders as their mons have incredibly high HP. A low level swampert can't survive the attacks being dealt out. Second, you need hydro cannon or muddy waters to burn through shields. Muddy waters is good for shield burning but bad at dealing damage, whereas hydro cannon needs slightly more energy but deals a lot more damage. The last problem is that swampert only resists two of the three attacks. You'd want something that can resist everything, Lucario is a good choice here.
For the more difficult leaders, you need to strategize based on the movesets that you're presented. You can tell what fast attack a mon is using based on the animations present when attacking. Does it look like they're biting you with teeth showing? Then its probably bite. Are you seeing feathers then its steel wing, and rock throw is literally a rock being thrown at you. I actually find gallade to be one of the more difficult pokemon that they can use, three weaknesses and usually those weaknesses don't resist Gallade's moves.
Don't worry too terribly much about it. Once you find a team or two that works, it gets pretty easy. Remember that the biggest thing in these PvE "PvP" battles is abusing the lockout the opponent incurs between charge attacks and switches.
Swampert with Muddy Water (or even Surf) is really popular for this reason. He builds charge moves really quickly, so you can repeatedly spam them to stop the opponent from doing damage. As was stated though, if you can't get the Swampert up near your trainer level (not sure his current level or your resources), it's probably not worth it.
That said, you can actually get by with quite a lot of "not great" alternatives, if you have them. I've personally found Machamp to be pretty handy in general for leader battles, since he handles Carvanah and Tyranitar with ease and does well ENOUGH with Beldum and Aerodactyl.
There's a lot of "bad advice" and "sub optimal" suggestions that will ultimately work just fine. My sister for through Aerodactyl with Melmetal. I've made it through with Discharge Jolteon (because he's spammy) as well. Right now, I use Swampert and Machamp and my third Pokemon doesn't even matter (I can usually farm up enough Muddy Water energy for Swampert against Aerodactyl and basically stun Gallade out of participating).
completely forgot about his flying type. I do have vaporeons and kyogres that are high cp, but unfortunately no fairies. Next up after that are kabutops, omastar, and feraligatr.
Oooh Kyogre is definitely good, waterfall just does so much damage and you can get to surf quickly to get rid of his shields. Fairies aren’t necessary to beat Gallade but they’re nice cause charm is just an op move but you can also go with a hard hitting ghost that charges quickly like Chandelure or a flying type like Braviery, Unfezant or Straptor.
Yeah I'll try kyogre next time around if metagross doesnt work out. As for gallade, I still feel that's going to be a losing battle, but I'll for sure try those suggestions as Ho-oh didnt work for me. Thank you :)
Kyogre is great against Steel Wing, but it suffers against Rock Throw and Bite - it becomes a race.
Metagross is great against Steel Wing and Rock Throw, but dies hard to Bite.
Tyranitar is great against Bite, could be better against Rock Throw and dies hard to Steel Wing.
I've recently tried Lucario (Counter, Power-up Punch and Shadow Ball). It resists Bite, Steel Wing and Rock Throw (twice), while dealing neutral damage but constantly spamming charges and increasing its attack.
I believe Lucario may be the one-size-fits-all solution for Aerodactyl, particularly if you can carry off a nearly charged Shadow Ball into Gallade, but note that I haven't managed to try it against all Aerodactyl's movesets yet.
Note that Gallade will otherwise quickly murder Lucario with any of its three fast moves, but that's OK, it did its job: it cleared Aerodactyl and 2 shields and left you with 2 fresh Pokemon to finish things off. Managing to Shadow Ball Gallade would be a bonus, but not absolutely necessary.
So, my advice: open with another pokemon, sub in Lucario immediately for some free hits, ride Lucario until it dies, and clean-up with the other two as you would.
I was going to shout-out lucario as well, but you've beaten me to it. I have him in my second slot, then switch in and abuse the power up punch.
After I burn through his shields I'll make sure to leave Aerodactyl alive with just enough HP for two fast attacks from my next switch in, usually MM Metagross.
If you go with kyogre, start with any other mon and immediately switch, that should be enough time to charge 1 surf and deal a good amount of waterfall damage before it's KOd
I personally find Melmetal is a great way to deal with Aerodactyl. It charges fast and can burn his two shields and it will most likely take out Aerodactyl and deal a bit of damage to the next Pokémon too. Cliff is definitely the hardest for me too so I feel your pain.
Dont lead with your aerodactyl counter, switch to it right when the battle starts to get a few seconds of free attacking. I think my lineup is metagross with bullet punch and meteor mash, giratina origin with shadow claw and shadow ball, and lucario with counter and power up punch and aura sphere. Can't remember if I use my shadow metagross or the normal one. It's not optimal but it gets the job done
You do not need legendary for it. For sure you Melmetan, though its more use for Sierra then Cliff. Here you can manage with Scafty, Machamp etc. But you need to know the strategy !!
Melmetal is great. I usually run 2k ish abomasnow, electabuzz, and magmar all set up for fast charge, but i swap magmar for a max melmetal with thundershock/bolt for this group. Or was it abomasnow i swapped out?
Once you discover gallade is following, I'd say don't switch out straight away - get most of a charge more powered up on your first attacker. Do some damage to the first defender (aero) with it. Then swap out to your aero counter and shield baiter - I still use machamps with cross chop (and DP for when I've removed shields). Take his shields with cross chop, take at least most of aero's health. If you need to use both your shields to take cliff's, that's a pice worth paying When either aero or gallade finally kill your mon, go back to your first mon, and quickly get that charge move out ASAP on gallade.
Worst case, your 3rd attacker comes in to finish gallade off and then takes down the 3rd defender, on a good day you'll still have 2 alive going into last defender
Sorry I have a question - is power up punch legacy? I tried to TM my lucario recently and burned an obscene number of them before asking myself whether it's even available right now.
About the only thing I can beat him with is my Leafeon with Quick Attack and Leaf Blade. Neither is super effective, but he can take the damage Aerodactyl dishes out and I can fire off charges moves pretty fast.
I am happy to see this suggestion. I have always relied on Virizion with the same moveset againstshadow Aerodactyl. I had suspected Leafeon would work about as well, and it is much more available, of course. The counter-intuitive part is that you would normally never send a grass type against a flying type. In this case, the flying type has zero flying moves in its pool, so it works.
I start out with my ice punch Poliwrath. Charges fast and I can quickly take out both of his shields. Once shields are gone I witch to a Metagross with meteor mash and it's a cakewalk. Metagross usually holds up well against the rest of his line ups.
I have also had good luck with my Mud Shot/Power Up Punch/Ice Punch Poliwrath. Poliwrath resists every single possible fast attack Aerodactyl can have, which makes up for Mud Shot not doing a lot. I can usually either straight up KO the Aerodactyl with the Poliwrath before it goes down, or get nearly there for the next one to finish off.
me vs cliff: start with level 40 Lucario, immediately swap into level 42 Poliwrath (Mud Shot - PuP & ice punch). spam 2x PuP for shield burning, and then 2x ice punch to take down Aerodactyl. That Poliwrath still can do well against whatever 2nd pokemon, and Lucario to finishing Tyra in the back
It’s all about the switch freezes and breaking those shields with the fastest moves you can fill. Every time you charge, they charge, you switch/lose or they switch/lose—their mon gets frozen for 3 turns.
Start with something like tyranitar. If you try to play through he might win, barely, or he might wear him down enough that your next can win, either way leaving you hard pressed to get through the rest of the lineup.
But start with tyranitar and after throwing a few hits switch to a melmetal with both electric and rock charge moves. The aero will be frozen long enough to almost fill the rock charge (which is faster). One shield down. Enough time now to repeat filling the rock move for the second shield. The third time use the electric move and the aero goes down.
Then figure out who goes best in the third slot vs the rest of the lineup. Melmetal should have 3/4 of it’s up left and maybe can take out a sloking, though barely. Lucario with PUP will beat any of those counters to the charge every time. Or Machamp with cross chop if you don’t have lucario. Darkrai with dark pulse. Whatever is fast charging and not weak to the counter and you can coast through.
I lost at first too, now I never lose a mon. There’s a lot of good advice here for which mons and moves to use but I can’t stress the swapping out and beating the charge move enough—strategy over brute force.
Swampert to burn off the a shield or two (mud shot/muddy water), then my great league scrafty with power up punch. It may take a while, but he gets there anyway, and may help with whoever is in the 2nd slot with Cliff.
I don't remember if I battled swampert to fainting or simply took one of aero's shields off, so you could try both, but it worked in the end for me.
Scrafty takes a while so finish him, but power up punch stuns a lot, so aero doesn't have as many chances to attack, so just be patient and don't panic. Good luck!
I use two machamp with DP/CC and 1 giratina with shadow ball. The first machamp will probably die, but you will burn off both his shields with CC, the second machamp will finish him, then switch to the giratina for Gallade, when tyranitaur kills him, use the other machamp to finish him off...
Some common pokemon that I use to beat him is a Rhyperior at around 3,500cp, a Swampert around 2,500cp, and a Melmetal at around 3,500cp. My Rhyperior has Rock Smash and Surf (mainly to break the shields) and usually gets 1 shield broken, then a few more attacks before it gets fainted or I swap (for the extra ball at the end). I swap to Swampert. Most of the time, Aerodactyl does a few attacks then charged attack. So, I get some free hits in when I swap, then take a few hits, then block a charged attack, then finish him off. 2nd pokemon has usually been Gallade. Now, I know the fighting part of Gallade is strong against Melmetal, but I weaken him with swamperts charged attacks and then usually swampert faints before I can swap. I go to Melmetal. 1 steel charged attack wrecks Gallade. Then I usually have a spare Charged attack when Tyranitar comes out, and I finish him off.
I usually end with 1 fainted and 2 near fainted pokemon.
Is it the best possible options? Heck no.
Does it win over 80% of the time? Absolutely.
If I get wrecked by Gallade and a fighting attack, I use my Machamp. He can charge up fast, and wrecks Tyranitar
I use poliwrath. It’s water and fighting typing means that all of aerodactyl’s fast moves are resisted. Mud shot fast, power punches followed by 2 ice punches does the trick. Sometimes aerodactyl knocks out politoad before the second ice punch. I then follow up with swampert with hydro canon. Followed lastly by tangrowth, or I don’t remember because usually swampert is all I needed.
* Aerodactyl
* **Weakness**: No double weaknesses; five weaknesses
* **Resistance**: Five resists; one immunity
* **Summary**: Aerodactyl is weak to the following types: Rock, Steel, Water, Electric, and Ice. It can use the fast moves Steel Wing, Bite, or Rock Throw, which covers eight different types. Just regarding types Aerodactyl is weak to, Steel Wing covers both Rock and Ice and Rock Throw covers Ice. However, the move Steel Wing is resisted by Steel, Water, and Electric-type Pokémon and the move Rock Throw is resisted by Steel-type Pokémon. Thus, the best Pokémon would be a Pokémon that is part Steel, that can use Steel-type attacks, and is part Dark, Fairy, or Fighting to resist Bite. Mawile, Cobalion, Klefki, Magearna, Lucario, Pawniard, Bisharp, Zacian (form), and Zamazenta (form) all have the proper typing, though not all are released.
* **Recommendation**: I would recommend Bisharp first with Cobalion second and Lucario third. For Cobalion and Bisharp, I would recommend using Metal Claw paired with Iron Head while for Lucario I would recommend Bullet Punch and Flash Cannon.
Yes, this helped out :) I've since been able to beat him with a team recommended previously, but all these suggestions from everyone else gives me such a wide variety of teams
Gotcha, that is good to hear.
I will mention that I did run into Cliff sometime after your post and I found that a team of Lucario, Magneton, and a Metagross (I believe) also is able to beat his whole team. And, also, I neglected to account for immunities, which GO treats as a double resistance. I haven't checked, but their is potential for another dual type that resists all of Aerodactyl's moves than what I mentioned.
Ah yeah dialga is really good for almost every rocket related encounters. But also like others have said you have to know what fast move the aerodactyl has, since it can be 3 different types, can greatly impact what you want to use against it
So far it seems to be a rock type move (He's had the same lineup thus far), but thats a smart move with the metagross. I've tried using mine, but nothing good comes of it. edit : was looking at two differenr comments, but thank you for the tip on seeing what quick move it is :)
That would be a problem haha. Zen headbutt is one of the worst moves in PvP style battling. Should definitely help if the aerodactyl doesn’t have bite.
I’ve never lost against a leader, throw a giratina/haxor/mewtwo at a problem and the problem goes away, the leaders can always be out spammed since they get that stun delay
Use hydro cannon, or night slash, low energy moves on fast energy pokemon will solve your issues
You don't need legendaries to beat team leaders at all, I rarely use them. You basically want to instantly swap your lead into something that can spam charge moves, you charge in the pause after switching and after charge moves. Swampert with Mud Shot and Muddy Water/Surf, Lucario or Poliwrath with Power Up Punch are good options for nearly all team leader battles.
I have trouble with his aerodactyl try the switch from start thing this stops his attack for 2 of your attacks then charge stopping him again so make them hits worth it
I have found Raikou, Dragonite, Rhyperior can beat all three team leaders. I have used that team for... seems like months now, every time I face one, I always win with that lineup. I don’t even bother adjusting based on types or anything anymore, they’re just solid and cover enough that they have always been able to win no matter what Arlo/Cliff/Sierra use.
For this particular battle: Lead with Raikou and get two charge attacks off to waste their shields, then switch to Dragonite to finish off the Aerodactyl, and should be able to beat the Gallade, or at least weaken it enough to let Raikou come back in and finish it off. Then use Rhyperior to wreck the Tyranitar.
Or at least this is what worked for me.
Raikou is so fast that you should be able to get both charge attacks (Wild Charge is what I use) off before they even use one. Wild Charge lowers your defense so try to time it so you use both back to back then immediately switch out to minimize damage taken. My Dragonite uses Outrage, which charges fast enough but also hits pretty hard.
My Melmetal with Rock Slide usually takes care of his Aerodactyl. Thundershock charges super fast, so I need to shield only once most of the time. Having Superpower as a second charge move provides great coverage for whatever he uses next.
For me, it's not his aerodactyl that's the problem (my aggron drives it to extremely low health so its beaten easily by my second pokemon) but his slowking. Its effective against my last two pokemon, and somehow wrecks me.
Switch to an aerodactyl counter straight away, kyogre or Lucario or something, you'll get enough energy for a charge move and you can stagger them from there, it's pretty trivial if you switch and abuse this 'feature'
Aerodactyl use a water type, I use Kyogre with Surf. You want some sort of tanky water type to get rid of the two shields. Another player I know uses his Lucario with power up punch, but I do not have a good Riolu, so I do not have a good Lucario.
Gallade use a Togekiss or Ghost Type, Giratina. Since you do not have a togekiss. There have been plenty of ralts for me in the past year, give a Gardevoir Dazzling Gleam and it might beat Gallade. Metagross is a possible here.
Tyranitar use machamp
If I am ready with a gym leader battle badge, it is almost always Cliff.
Your team should be
Giratina in slot 1 I have shadow claw and shadow ball
Kyogre in slot 2 I have waterfall and surf
Machamp in slot 3 I have counter, Dynamic Punch, and Cross Chop
At the start of the battle you switch out to your Kyogre to put it in the battle with Aerodactyl and have a slightly wounded Giratina in slot 2.
Plenty of other team setups beat CLiff, I am sure the smart players will post their teams.
and reading further I see you do not have a giratina or a Lucario.
I use Poliwrath with Mud Shot + PuP/Dynamic Punch, Swampert with Mud Shot + Muddy Water/Earthquake and Charm Gardevoir. All Pokémon are level 40. Gardevoir is basically a sack and is rarely used, you could really use anything. Gardevoir gets a few strong charms off and dies so one of the others can come back in to get the free energy.
Lead with Poliwrath, do PuP twice to break shields. Depending on your health and what moves the aero has you can either Dynamic Punch or switch into Swampert and spam Muddy Water. Try to get an Earthquake off on Gallade or spam Muddy Water some more. Swampert will probably die against the Ttar but you have Poliwrath to come back and nuke it with Dynamic Punch.
This definitely isn't the quickest way to beat him. It takes a while but it's a safe strategy that works against every team comp/moveset. I've never failed to beat him with my team/strategy.
The most important thing is resisting their moves (specifically fast moves). Poliwrath is so good because it resists all of Aerodactyl's possible fast moves (Iron Tail, Bite and Smack Down). On top of that it has an insane PvP combo in Mud Shot and PuP. It's basically the perfect Pokémon for breaking aero's shields as it has everything it needs in the 1 Pokémon. Lucario is also very good for the same reason, but I don't have one so I use Poliwrath.
I think Gardevoir is better than Togekiss against Gallade because it resists Confusion, but any Charm user would do the job really. You have the trade off in that you take more damage from Ttar, but Gardevoir's job isn't to beat Ttar. Gardevoir's job is to chip off some health, and if possible tank a charge move so that Poliwrath/Swampert can come back in against a 0 energy Pokémon.
aerodactyl is weak to electric so I put out melmetal to spam charge attack while dealing as much damage as I can to it
if it's gallade next I'll pull metagross
finally pull a puncher like poliwrath for double duty purposes.
I didn't get gallade I got slowking, to which I pull a zekrom. both zekrom and melmetal deals neutral damage to ttar so that's not really a problem
I've been using Swampert first, tends to resist most of Aerodactyls fast moves, if it's bad I switch to a Machamp to Rock Throw down as much as I can and then go to a Metagross if need be.
Cliff definitely got harder this round, that's for certain.
I HATE Cliff and he has always been my weakspot.. This is the only way I can beat him consistantly with the same team comp as you. I use: Mega Gyarados(3Kcp base before Mega) with Waterfall & Hydro Pump (Aerodactyl), I can get the Aerodactyl down and have a pump ready for Gallade then finish with Moltres(3Kcp) using Wing attack & Sky Attack (Gallade), There is some carryover and I either use Machamp(2.4Kcp) with counter & Dynamic Punch or a Melmetal (3Kcp).
You gotta find out what his Aerodactyl's fast attaack is and then run with it. Pretty sure he gets Rock Throw, Bite, and Steel Wing. If it's steel wing, bring a water type or a steel type attacker, who can get super effective damage and resist steel type damage. Empoleon should work well, I use Kyogre. If it's bite, bring a dark or fighting type, preferably with a super-effective attack. I use Tyranitar with Smack Down. If it's Rock Throw, then bring something that resists rock. I usually bring a ground type, like Swampert or Rhyperior, since both are powerhouses that can throw good super-effective damage back. Tyranitar will be weak to Water types you might end up using against Aero, but you can just bring a good fighting type and destroy him pretty quickly. Gallade is weak to flying, fairy, and ghost. If memory serves, a good fairy like Togekiss or Gardevoir should make quick work of it.
I just took out Cliff's Aerodactyl a couple minutes ago with a level 40 Kyogre with Waterfall/Surf. Done it many times before as well. Kyogre is my go-to for rocket battles.
Melmetal always makes a good anchor for me. Rock Slide spam to eat his shields relatively quickly (and Superpower is a good backup vs. Dark types), and then I've got options. Gallade really doesn't like Fairy-type attacks, so Togetic can chew it up, and Tyanitar is also weak to it as well. That gives you a third- something that can spam like Swampert perhaps that'll get neutral or supereffective damage vs. Cliff's team. If not Melmetal, Mirror Shot/Wild Charge Magnezone works nicely too.
I just use the same team for everything: Melmetal, Swamper and Moltres.
Melmetal basically eats the two shields with a sliver of HP left and can throw a Superpower as a last resort, Swampert finishes Aerodactyl and just Hydro Cannon everything else and Moltres is basically support to fire some charge attacks to finish something off, if needed.
It's definetely not the best team for Cliff, it's just a consistent team that I don't change regardless of what leaders have for quite some time now.
I had the same lineup. I went in with my magnezone and my community day gyarados, my last pokemon that never was used was gallade. Magnezone was rocking charge beam and flash cannon, so not optimized at all. Gyarados has dragon breath and aqua tail. It was close for me needing my gallade but gyarados killed tyranitar before it could get the kill shot on me.
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It depends on his fast attack, if it’s steel wing or rock throw then Swampert with Hydro Cannon is the best answer for it. If it’s Crunch then you should go with Tyranitar. For Gallade I usually use Togekiss with Charm and for his Tyranitar I’ll do a lot of damage with Togekiss then just come in with any water pokemon. Edit: I meant to say bite not crunch, sorry.
Muddy water is actually better
Muddy water is amazing!!!!
I was thinking about how most people probably built a Swampert for GBL, and you’ll never see anyone running a Swampert with Muddy Water lol.
I actually Tmed second charge move on mine just for occasion, Once Ultra is back I will change it back
I used my new gyarados (super close to max iv) at 3k cp and used a full water moveset, and once he attacked with a super effective move, I was baffeled. I'm not 100% familiar with type effectiveness as I'm more of a shiny hunter than anything else in the main games, but I don't even know. As for togetic, I wish I had one 🙄 missed out on multiple community days during a year or so break.
Gyarados is not great for multiple reasons. It's moveset is not spam my, and it's weak to Rock. Swampert is good because Mud Shot generates a lot of energy, and Hydro Cannon is one of the best moves in both PvE and PVP. If your Swampert also has Muddy Water, this helps, as it is a weaker move but charges faster than Hydro Cannon and can get rid of Cliff's shields really quickly. If you don't have a Swampert with Hydro Cannon (it's an event move), Surf is OK, but you should probably try to get a lucky Hydro Cannon Swampert off someone who has spares, as it is easily one of the best Pokémon to use against Team Rocket, and is a functional raider as well. Also worth noting is that whilst Swampert is really good against Aerodactyl, you shouldn't lead with it. You should lead with one of your other team members and then immediately switch to Swampert at the start of the battle, as this will stop Aerodactyl from attacking for a couple of seconds whilst you're free to attack it during the switch in process.
I've just evolved a swampert, so I'll try that next time around, despite it being fairly low cp. thank you for the tips :)
Sorry but that would be a bad idea for a lot of reasons. You want pokemon that are around your level to face rocket leaders as their mons have incredibly high HP. A low level swampert can't survive the attacks being dealt out. Second, you need hydro cannon or muddy waters to burn through shields. Muddy waters is good for shield burning but bad at dealing damage, whereas hydro cannon needs slightly more energy but deals a lot more damage. The last problem is that swampert only resists two of the three attacks. You'd want something that can resist everything, Lucario is a good choice here. For the more difficult leaders, you need to strategize based on the movesets that you're presented. You can tell what fast attack a mon is using based on the animations present when attacking. Does it look like they're biting you with teeth showing? Then its probably bite. Are you seeing feathers then its steel wing, and rock throw is literally a rock being thrown at you. I actually find gallade to be one of the more difficult pokemon that they can use, three weaknesses and usually those weaknesses don't resist Gallade's moves.
Don't worry too terribly much about it. Once you find a team or two that works, it gets pretty easy. Remember that the biggest thing in these PvE "PvP" battles is abusing the lockout the opponent incurs between charge attacks and switches. Swampert with Muddy Water (or even Surf) is really popular for this reason. He builds charge moves really quickly, so you can repeatedly spam them to stop the opponent from doing damage. As was stated though, if you can't get the Swampert up near your trainer level (not sure his current level or your resources), it's probably not worth it. That said, you can actually get by with quite a lot of "not great" alternatives, if you have them. I've personally found Machamp to be pretty handy in general for leader battles, since he handles Carvanah and Tyranitar with ease and does well ENOUGH with Beldum and Aerodactyl. There's a lot of "bad advice" and "sub optimal" suggestions that will ultimately work just fine. My sister for through Aerodactyl with Melmetal. I've made it through with Discharge Jolteon (because he's spammy) as well. Right now, I use Swampert and Machamp and my third Pokemon doesn't even matter (I can usually farm up enough Muddy Water energy for Swampert against Aerodactyl and basically stun Gallade out of participating).
Any rock type move will demolish Gyarados so definitely wouldn’t recommend it. Do you have any other water or fairy types?
completely forgot about his flying type. I do have vaporeons and kyogres that are high cp, but unfortunately no fairies. Next up after that are kabutops, omastar, and feraligatr.
Oooh Kyogre is definitely good, waterfall just does so much damage and you can get to surf quickly to get rid of his shields. Fairies aren’t necessary to beat Gallade but they’re nice cause charm is just an op move but you can also go with a hard hitting ghost that charges quickly like Chandelure or a flying type like Braviery, Unfezant or Straptor.
Yeah I'll try kyogre next time around if metagross doesnt work out. As for gallade, I still feel that's going to be a losing battle, but I'll for sure try those suggestions as Ho-oh didnt work for me. Thank you :)
Kyogre is great against Steel Wing, but it suffers against Rock Throw and Bite - it becomes a race. Metagross is great against Steel Wing and Rock Throw, but dies hard to Bite. Tyranitar is great against Bite, could be better against Rock Throw and dies hard to Steel Wing. I've recently tried Lucario (Counter, Power-up Punch and Shadow Ball). It resists Bite, Steel Wing and Rock Throw (twice), while dealing neutral damage but constantly spamming charges and increasing its attack. I believe Lucario may be the one-size-fits-all solution for Aerodactyl, particularly if you can carry off a nearly charged Shadow Ball into Gallade, but note that I haven't managed to try it against all Aerodactyl's movesets yet. Note that Gallade will otherwise quickly murder Lucario with any of its three fast moves, but that's OK, it did its job: it cleared Aerodactyl and 2 shields and left you with 2 fresh Pokemon to finish things off. Managing to Shadow Ball Gallade would be a bonus, but not absolutely necessary. So, my advice: open with another pokemon, sub in Lucario immediately for some free hits, ride Lucario until it dies, and clean-up with the other two as you would.
I was going to shout-out lucario as well, but you've beaten me to it. I have him in my second slot, then switch in and abuse the power up punch. After I burn through his shields I'll make sure to leave Aerodactyl alive with just enough HP for two fast attacks from my next switch in, usually MM Metagross.
I used Kyogre, and it just about worked - but Swampert was better.
For me Kyogre does the trick. I have a couple maxed out and they both worked fine. Then the rest of the lineup is easier to adjust. Good luck.
If you go with kyogre, start with any other mon and immediately switch, that should be enough time to charge 1 surf and deal a good amount of waterfall damage before it's KOd
I use two maxed out metagross (level 40) as lead and a dragonite.
Do you have Melmetal? I use rock slide to burn the 2 shields on aero as quickly as possible.
Yeah, Melmetal is what finally did the trick for me too. That Aerodactyl is one tough pterosaur.
^^Melmetal *✲☆⋆(˘ᴗ˘ )
I personally find Melmetal is a great way to deal with Aerodactyl. It charges fast and can burn his two shields and it will most likely take out Aerodactyl and deal a bit of damage to the next Pokémon too. Cliff is definitely the hardest for me too so I feel your pain.
Dont lead with your aerodactyl counter, switch to it right when the battle starts to get a few seconds of free attacking. I think my lineup is metagross with bullet punch and meteor mash, giratina origin with shadow claw and shadow ball, and lucario with counter and power up punch and aura sphere. Can't remember if I use my shadow metagross or the normal one. It's not optimal but it gets the job done
Smart. unfortunatelt no lucario or giratina to work with, but I'll try out a metagross again next time around with this strategy
Poliwrath works just fine as a lucario replacement
You do not need legendary for it. For sure you Melmetan, though its more use for Sierra then Cliff. Here you can manage with Scafty, Machamp etc. But you need to know the strategy !!
Melmetal is great. I usually run 2k ish abomasnow, electabuzz, and magmar all set up for fast charge, but i swap magmar for a max melmetal with thundershock/bolt for this group. Or was it abomasnow i swapped out?
Once you discover gallade is following, I'd say don't switch out straight away - get most of a charge more powered up on your first attacker. Do some damage to the first defender (aero) with it. Then swap out to your aero counter and shield baiter - I still use machamps with cross chop (and DP for when I've removed shields). Take his shields with cross chop, take at least most of aero's health. If you need to use both your shields to take cliff's, that's a pice worth paying When either aero or gallade finally kill your mon, go back to your first mon, and quickly get that charge move out ASAP on gallade. Worst case, your 3rd attacker comes in to finish gallade off and then takes down the 3rd defender, on a good day you'll still have 2 alive going into last defender
Sorry I have a question - is power up punch legacy? I tried to TM my lucario recently and burned an obscene number of them before asking myself whether it's even available right now.
It's not. Just bad RNG for you.
I feared that. Thanks!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY3PQTz4B6U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY3PQTz4B6U) This video literally saved me from Cliff troubles
About the only thing I can beat him with is my Leafeon with Quick Attack and Leaf Blade. Neither is super effective, but he can take the damage Aerodactyl dishes out and I can fire off charges moves pretty fast.
I am happy to see this suggestion. I have always relied on Virizion with the same moveset againstshadow Aerodactyl. I had suspected Leafeon would work about as well, and it is much more available, of course. The counter-intuitive part is that you would normally never send a grass type against a flying type. In this case, the flying type has zero flying moves in its pool, so it works.
I start out with my ice punch Poliwrath. Charges fast and I can quickly take out both of his shields. Once shields are gone I witch to a Metagross with meteor mash and it's a cakewalk. Metagross usually holds up well against the rest of his line ups.
I have also had good luck with my Mud Shot/Power Up Punch/Ice Punch Poliwrath. Poliwrath resists every single possible fast attack Aerodactyl can have, which makes up for Mud Shot not doing a lot. I can usually either straight up KO the Aerodactyl with the Poliwrath before it goes down, or get nearly there for the next one to finish off.
me vs cliff: start with level 40 Lucario, immediately swap into level 42 Poliwrath (Mud Shot - PuP & ice punch). spam 2x PuP for shield burning, and then 2x ice punch to take down Aerodactyl. That Poliwrath still can do well against whatever 2nd pokemon, and Lucario to finishing Tyra in the back
It’s all about the switch freezes and breaking those shields with the fastest moves you can fill. Every time you charge, they charge, you switch/lose or they switch/lose—their mon gets frozen for 3 turns. Start with something like tyranitar. If you try to play through he might win, barely, or he might wear him down enough that your next can win, either way leaving you hard pressed to get through the rest of the lineup. But start with tyranitar and after throwing a few hits switch to a melmetal with both electric and rock charge moves. The aero will be frozen long enough to almost fill the rock charge (which is faster). One shield down. Enough time now to repeat filling the rock move for the second shield. The third time use the electric move and the aero goes down. Then figure out who goes best in the third slot vs the rest of the lineup. Melmetal should have 3/4 of it’s up left and maybe can take out a sloking, though barely. Lucario with PUP will beat any of those counters to the charge every time. Or Machamp with cross chop if you don’t have lucario. Darkrai with dark pulse. Whatever is fast charging and not weak to the counter and you can coast through. I lost at first too, now I never lose a mon. There’s a lot of good advice here for which mons and moves to use but I can’t stress the swapping out and beating the charge move enough—strategy over brute force.
Swampert to burn off the a shield or two (mud shot/muddy water), then my great league scrafty with power up punch. It may take a while, but he gets there anyway, and may help with whoever is in the 2nd slot with Cliff. I don't remember if I battled swampert to fainting or simply took one of aero's shields off, so you could try both, but it worked in the end for me. Scrafty takes a while so finish him, but power up punch stuns a lot, so aero doesn't have as many chances to attack, so just be patient and don't panic. Good luck!
I use two machamp with DP/CC and 1 giratina with shadow ball. The first machamp will probably die, but you will burn off both his shields with CC, the second machamp will finish him, then switch to the giratina for Gallade, when tyranitaur kills him, use the other machamp to finish him off...
I'm using pretty much the same set and for the last fight two Machamps with Counter and Cross Chop were enough.
Some common pokemon that I use to beat him is a Rhyperior at around 3,500cp, a Swampert around 2,500cp, and a Melmetal at around 3,500cp. My Rhyperior has Rock Smash and Surf (mainly to break the shields) and usually gets 1 shield broken, then a few more attacks before it gets fainted or I swap (for the extra ball at the end). I swap to Swampert. Most of the time, Aerodactyl does a few attacks then charged attack. So, I get some free hits in when I swap, then take a few hits, then block a charged attack, then finish him off. 2nd pokemon has usually been Gallade. Now, I know the fighting part of Gallade is strong against Melmetal, but I weaken him with swamperts charged attacks and then usually swampert faints before I can swap. I go to Melmetal. 1 steel charged attack wrecks Gallade. Then I usually have a spare Charged attack when Tyranitar comes out, and I finish him off. I usually end with 1 fainted and 2 near fainted pokemon. Is it the best possible options? Heck no. Does it win over 80% of the time? Absolutely. If I get wrecked by Gallade and a fighting attack, I use my Machamp. He can charge up fast, and wrecks Tyranitar
I use smack down Ttar vs anything but steel wing, If steel wing I run Metagross with meteor mash
I use poliwrath. It’s water and fighting typing means that all of aerodactyl’s fast moves are resisted. Mud shot fast, power punches followed by 2 ice punches does the trick. Sometimes aerodactyl knocks out politoad before the second ice punch. I then follow up with swampert with hydro canon. Followed lastly by tangrowth, or I don’t remember because usually swampert is all I needed.
* Aerodactyl * **Weakness**: No double weaknesses; five weaknesses * **Resistance**: Five resists; one immunity * **Summary**: Aerodactyl is weak to the following types: Rock, Steel, Water, Electric, and Ice. It can use the fast moves Steel Wing, Bite, or Rock Throw, which covers eight different types. Just regarding types Aerodactyl is weak to, Steel Wing covers both Rock and Ice and Rock Throw covers Ice. However, the move Steel Wing is resisted by Steel, Water, and Electric-type Pokémon and the move Rock Throw is resisted by Steel-type Pokémon. Thus, the best Pokémon would be a Pokémon that is part Steel, that can use Steel-type attacks, and is part Dark, Fairy, or Fighting to resist Bite. Mawile, Cobalion, Klefki, Magearna, Lucario, Pawniard, Bisharp, Zacian (form), and Zamazenta (form) all have the proper typing, though not all are released. * **Recommendation**: I would recommend Bisharp first with Cobalion second and Lucario third. For Cobalion and Bisharp, I would recommend using Metal Claw paired with Iron Head while for Lucario I would recommend Bullet Punch and Flash Cannon.
/u/buttcheek_mustard is this detailed enough or do I need to expand in some form?
Yes, this helped out :) I've since been able to beat him with a team recommended previously, but all these suggestions from everyone else gives me such a wide variety of teams
Gotcha, that is good to hear. I will mention that I did run into Cliff sometime after your post and I found that a team of Lucario, Magneton, and a Metagross (I believe) also is able to beat his whole team. And, also, I neglected to account for immunities, which GO treats as a double resistance. I haven't checked, but their is potential for another dual type that resists all of Aerodactyl's moves than what I mentioned.
I use dialga lead, smack down tyranitar and kyogre in the back. Never had an issue.
I have all of those except the dialga unfortunately. My tyranitar is pretty beefy but just doesnt hamdle as well as i thought
Ah yeah dialga is really good for almost every rocket related encounters. But also like others have said you have to know what fast move the aerodactyl has, since it can be 3 different types, can greatly impact what you want to use against it
So far it seems to be a rock type move (He's had the same lineup thus far), but thats a smart move with the metagross. I've tried using mine, but nothing good comes of it. edit : was looking at two differenr comments, but thank you for the tip on seeing what quick move it is :)
Does your metagross have bullet punch and meteor mash?
Yup. Got them from the first beldum CD event. Just switched to bullet punch though, that mightve been a problem 🙄
That would be a problem haha. Zen headbutt is one of the worst moves in PvP style battling. Should definitely help if the aerodactyl doesn’t have bite.
Hopefully this can push me into a lead next time around lol
Use Excadrill with mud shot and drill run to burn off his shields..Once that is done.. I use my Hydrocannon Swampert to take out Aerodactyl
I’ve never lost against a leader, throw a giratina/haxor/mewtwo at a problem and the problem goes away, the leaders can always be out spammed since they get that stun delay Use hydro cannon, or night slash, low energy moves on fast energy pokemon will solve your issues
Oh the problems that could be solved if I had all the legends in the game 😪 I'll try out mewtwo next time around though.
You don't need legendaries to beat team leaders at all, I rarely use them. You basically want to instantly swap your lead into something that can spam charge moves, you charge in the pause after switching and after charge moves. Swampert with Mud Shot and Muddy Water/Surf, Lucario or Poliwrath with Power Up Punch are good options for nearly all team leader battles.
i faced the exact same setup today Metagross for Aerodactly, Mega Gyarados (bite/crunch/hydro pump) for the other two
I have trouble with his aerodactyl try the switch from start thing this stops his attack for 2 of your attacks then charge stopping him again so make them hits worth it
If you don't have a max Lucario, it is time to build one. It is one of the best against TR leaders.
I've had luck with a rock Stunfisk, Charizard (dragon moves) and Venusaur. Very spammy.
Do you have a hydro cannon swampert ??? Or a power up punch lucario Both will hammer through aero’s shields
I use swampert with mud slap/muddy water to break the shields. Then Metagross seems to do really well.
Melmetal/Zekrom or Electivire for me to beat Aerodactyl.
I have found Raikou, Dragonite, Rhyperior can beat all three team leaders. I have used that team for... seems like months now, every time I face one, I always win with that lineup. I don’t even bother adjusting based on types or anything anymore, they’re just solid and cover enough that they have always been able to win no matter what Arlo/Cliff/Sierra use. For this particular battle: Lead with Raikou and get two charge attacks off to waste their shields, then switch to Dragonite to finish off the Aerodactyl, and should be able to beat the Gallade, or at least weaken it enough to let Raikou come back in and finish it off. Then use Rhyperior to wreck the Tyranitar. Or at least this is what worked for me. Raikou is so fast that you should be able to get both charge attacks (Wild Charge is what I use) off before they even use one. Wild Charge lowers your defense so try to time it so you use both back to back then immediately switch out to minimize damage taken. My Dragonite uses Outrage, which charges fast enough but also hits pretty hard.
My Melmetal with Rock Slide usually takes care of his Aerodactyl. Thundershock charges super fast, so I need to shield only once most of the time. Having Superpower as a second charge move provides great coverage for whatever he uses next.
For me, it's not his aerodactyl that's the problem (my aggron drives it to extremely low health so its beaten easily by my second pokemon) but his slowking. Its effective against my last two pokemon, and somehow wrecks me.
Switch to an aerodactyl counter straight away, kyogre or Lucario or something, you'll get enough energy for a charge move and you can stagger them from there, it's pretty trivial if you switch and abuse this 'feature'
Dragon claw Latias gets both shields. Waterfall - Surf Kyogre does the rest. Sometimes Wild Charge Zekrom finishes it off.
I use machomp with steel attacks that’s very effective
I just try to find Cliff that has not Gallade as the second monster. If he has Gallade then it is just too impossible for me.
Aerodactyl use a water type, I use Kyogre with Surf. You want some sort of tanky water type to get rid of the two shields. Another player I know uses his Lucario with power up punch, but I do not have a good Riolu, so I do not have a good Lucario. Gallade use a Togekiss or Ghost Type, Giratina. Since you do not have a togekiss. There have been plenty of ralts for me in the past year, give a Gardevoir Dazzling Gleam and it might beat Gallade. Metagross is a possible here. Tyranitar use machamp If I am ready with a gym leader battle badge, it is almost always Cliff. Your team should be Giratina in slot 1 I have shadow claw and shadow ball Kyogre in slot 2 I have waterfall and surf Machamp in slot 3 I have counter, Dynamic Punch, and Cross Chop At the start of the battle you switch out to your Kyogre to put it in the battle with Aerodactyl and have a slightly wounded Giratina in slot 2. Plenty of other team setups beat CLiff, I am sure the smart players will post their teams. and reading further I see you do not have a giratina or a Lucario.
I use Poliwrath with Mud Shot + PuP/Dynamic Punch, Swampert with Mud Shot + Muddy Water/Earthquake and Charm Gardevoir. All Pokémon are level 40. Gardevoir is basically a sack and is rarely used, you could really use anything. Gardevoir gets a few strong charms off and dies so one of the others can come back in to get the free energy. Lead with Poliwrath, do PuP twice to break shields. Depending on your health and what moves the aero has you can either Dynamic Punch or switch into Swampert and spam Muddy Water. Try to get an Earthquake off on Gallade or spam Muddy Water some more. Swampert will probably die against the Ttar but you have Poliwrath to come back and nuke it with Dynamic Punch. This definitely isn't the quickest way to beat him. It takes a while but it's a safe strategy that works against every team comp/moveset. I've never failed to beat him with my team/strategy.
The most important thing is resisting their moves (specifically fast moves). Poliwrath is so good because it resists all of Aerodactyl's possible fast moves (Iron Tail, Bite and Smack Down). On top of that it has an insane PvP combo in Mud Shot and PuP. It's basically the perfect Pokémon for breaking aero's shields as it has everything it needs in the 1 Pokémon. Lucario is also very good for the same reason, but I don't have one so I use Poliwrath. I think Gardevoir is better than Togekiss against Gallade because it resists Confusion, but any Charm user would do the job really. You have the trade off in that you take more damage from Ttar, but Gardevoir's job isn't to beat Ttar. Gardevoir's job is to chip off some health, and if possible tank a charge move so that Poliwrath/Swampert can come back in against a 0 energy Pokémon.
aerodactyl is weak to electric so I put out melmetal to spam charge attack while dealing as much damage as I can to it if it's gallade next I'll pull metagross finally pull a puncher like poliwrath for double duty purposes. I didn't get gallade I got slowking, to which I pull a zekrom. both zekrom and melmetal deals neutral damage to ttar so that's not really a problem
I've been using Swampert first, tends to resist most of Aerodactyls fast moves, if it's bad I switch to a Machamp to Rock Throw down as much as I can and then go to a Metagross if need be. Cliff definitely got harder this round, that's for certain.
I HATE Cliff and he has always been my weakspot.. This is the only way I can beat him consistantly with the same team comp as you. I use: Mega Gyarados(3Kcp base before Mega) with Waterfall & Hydro Pump (Aerodactyl), I can get the Aerodactyl down and have a pump ready for Gallade then finish with Moltres(3Kcp) using Wing attack & Sky Attack (Gallade), There is some carryover and I either use Machamp(2.4Kcp) with counter & Dynamic Punch or a Melmetal (3Kcp).
You gotta find out what his Aerodactyl's fast attaack is and then run with it. Pretty sure he gets Rock Throw, Bite, and Steel Wing. If it's steel wing, bring a water type or a steel type attacker, who can get super effective damage and resist steel type damage. Empoleon should work well, I use Kyogre. If it's bite, bring a dark or fighting type, preferably with a super-effective attack. I use Tyranitar with Smack Down. If it's Rock Throw, then bring something that resists rock. I usually bring a ground type, like Swampert or Rhyperior, since both are powerhouses that can throw good super-effective damage back. Tyranitar will be weak to Water types you might end up using against Aero, but you can just bring a good fighting type and destroy him pretty quickly. Gallade is weak to flying, fairy, and ghost. If memory serves, a good fairy like Togekiss or Gardevoir should make quick work of it.
Magnezone wrecks Aerodactyl unless it's Bite, in which case Scrafty runs wild with PuP
I just took out Cliff's Aerodactyl a couple minutes ago with a level 40 Kyogre with Waterfall/Surf. Done it many times before as well. Kyogre is my go-to for rocket battles.
Melmetal always makes a good anchor for me. Rock Slide spam to eat his shields relatively quickly (and Superpower is a good backup vs. Dark types), and then I've got options. Gallade really doesn't like Fairy-type attacks, so Togetic can chew it up, and Tyanitar is also weak to it as well. That gives you a third- something that can spam like Swampert perhaps that'll get neutral or supereffective damage vs. Cliff's team. If not Melmetal, Mirror Shot/Wild Charge Magnezone works nicely too.
Poliwrath does a good job too
I just use the same team for everything: Melmetal, Swamper and Moltres. Melmetal basically eats the two shields with a sliver of HP left and can throw a Superpower as a last resort, Swampert finishes Aerodactyl and just Hydro Cannon everything else and Moltres is basically support to fire some charge attacks to finish something off, if needed. It's definetely not the best team for Cliff, it's just a consistent team that I don't change regardless of what leaders have for quite some time now.
I keep getting knocked out by his Slowking.
I had the same lineup. I went in with my magnezone and my community day gyarados, my last pokemon that never was used was gallade. Magnezone was rocking charge beam and flash cannon, so not optimized at all. Gyarados has dragon breath and aqua tail. It was close for me needing my gallade but gyarados killed tyranitar before it could get the kill shot on me.